Friday Focus...Forgiveness

Today for this Friday Focus, I want to write about forgiveness.  

It is not the forgiveness that God has given us through the death and resurrection of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.  God's forgiveness is infinitely wonderful and it seals for those who respond to His opening of our eyes and hearts to Jesus as our Savior, like the thief on the cross, paradise (heavenly eternal life).  The forgiveness provided by the cross and grave events is part of the gospel message that we are to proclaim to the world as salt and light, ambassadors of Jesus.

The forgiveness I want to write of today is the forgiveness that we offer to each other and specifically within the body of Christ, the church.  I am sure what I write here could also be applied to our biological family but if we are Christians, we are immersed in this other family where the physical walls change after the service or the ministry we are participating.  

We go home.  We put some distance between ourselves.  We might be tempted to not do this action that God has commanded us to do.

Here are some pretty pointed Bible scriptures on the subject.

Ephesians 4:32

And be kind and compassionate to one another,

forgiving one another,

just as God also forgave you in Christ.

Luke 17:3, 4

Be on your guard.

If your brother sins, rebuke him,

and if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you seven times in a day,

and comes back to you seven times, saying,

"I repent," you must forgive him.

Colossians 3:12, 13

Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved,

put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,

bearing with one another and forgiving one another

if anyone has a grievance against another.

Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.

I have been in this church family for 55 years and in it as a Christian, in Christ, for 44 years.  I have seen forgiveness offered between brothers and sisters in Christ and I have seen it avoided.  I have also seen interchanges that could have been forgiveness but came up short because "saving face" was more important than a complete obedience to God's command.  Let me add, at this point, that I am not only writing about what I have seen but also what I personally have experienced on both sides of the equation.  There are times I have walked through forgiveness in accordance to God's word and other times that I have come up short.  I keep coming back to this spiritual discipline for reinforcement because the "coming up short" times could have been so different internally and externally.

Let's throw in a quote from C.S. Lewis on the subject of forgiveness from his book The Weight Of Glory.

"But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night ‘forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.’ We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says."

I love that C.S. Lewis says, "This is hard."  Forgiveness is hard to do.  It is hard if you are the one who has done the offense and either you sense it yourself or it has been brought to your attention.  It is hard if you are the one who has been offended and are either approaching the offender to forgive or being approached by the offender who is asking for forgiveness.  It is also hard to be another member of the family and figuring out your possible role in the matter.  You might be the one who brings the two parties together or you might be spending time on your knees in prayer for a godly resolution to happen that truly brings glory to God.  Does forgiveness need to happen within the family of God?  Let me put here again C.S. Lewis' last line.

"There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says."

I have to keep reminding myself that there is no godly alternative when forgiveness is necessary.  No human action will replace it.  No worldly excuse will eliminate its need if we are going to proceed forward in the true sense of how God wants His family to live and interact with each other.  

One of the characteristics of the family of God is love.  We love one another.  We see that love in our care for one another.  It might be a listening ear when another is going through a tough time.  It might be some helping hands when physical power is needed.  It might be a guidance toward a specific Scripture or the stopping to pray with the other on the spot.  It might even be an actual physical touch or the getting down on the knees to look eye to eye with a small one of the church.  

The love of the family of God between family members mimics that love that God has for each of us.  Part of God's love toward us is His forgiveness and therefore, part of the love between the family members are the acts of forgiveness we participate in.  When do you truly know that you are loved by another family member?  I think you know it when some of the above mentioned in the previous paragraph is experienced but I think it is really apparently when the process of forgiveness is followed and the relationship is stronger because of it.  The forgiveness I am talking about here is forgiveness that is not diluted in any way by pride.  What is "key and king" in this process of forgiveness is humility.  

True forgiveness doesn't happen without humility as the centerpiece of the table of gathering together.

So let's end this post with one more great quote from D.L. Moody on forgiveness and pledge again to follow God's instruction rather than the world's avoidance.

"The voice of sin is loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder."

Adam